Internet access is often viewed as an important aspect of modern life. While in years past users were limited to accessing the Internet via various landline-based connections, users across the globe now frequently access the Internet via a variety of mobile connections, including via WIFI routers located in homes and businesses or via smartphones connected to cellphone towers.
While cellphone tower accessibility continues to progress across population centers, significant gaps in coverage, particularly in rural areas, remain. To address these gaps, some providers have attempted to bridge satellite communication systems (such as those used on some commercial airliners) with local area networks (e.g., WIFI and Ethernet) in order to provide Internet access to users in rural areas. However, such communication systems (particularly mobile satellite communications (SATCOM) systems, low earth orbit (LEO) and medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite constellations, and others) are often prohibitively expensive for most users and, thus, not typically practical. Consequently, as LEO constellations become realizable, development of low-cost antennas capable of tracking such orbits may provide rural and mobile users potential relief from the cost of traditional SATCOM while maintaining, and in some cases enabling, Internet connectivity.